Innovation in the use of an interactive phantom for effective oral hygiene education in children.

Abstract

Oral hygiene plays a leading role in avoiding conditions of oral origin. Therefore, the importance of timely hygiene is underlined. For this, without a doubt the promotion of health in childhood is transcendental. The objective of this innovation project was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the use of 3D printed anthropomorphic dental phantoms as an interactive tool to perfect the Fones brushing technique and, with this, improve the level of oral hygiene of a group of 32 children between 6 to 8 years old from an educational unit in the city of Riobamba in Ecuador. The method applied to measure the level of oral hygiene before and after the intervention was the O'Leary index, resulting in a decrease in the population with a regular and poor level of hygiene of 15.78% and 29.33% respectively. , and an increase in the population with a good level of hygiene of 45%. The technological development of the interactive phantom contributes positively to visual instruction, which, together with the practical reinforcement and monitoring of hygiene, allowed us to show an improvement in the reduction of plaque levels in the population.